Te Puni Kokiri blowing budget on contractors, consultants

Brendan Horan is
concerned that Te Puni Kokiri is massively overspending on
contractors and consultants while at the same time lacking
the staff to have the capacity to deliver on its core
mission.

“Te Puni Kokori spent over $9.5 million on
consultants and contractors in the last financial year.
Over 130 businesses, organisations and individuals
benefitted from this largesse, holding contracts with a
value of nearly $18 million,” said Brendan Horan.

“At
the same time, Te Puni Kokiri’s staff numbers are 15.3%
below the minimum needed to deliver the services that are
required of them. This is unacceptable at a time when
Maori are at the wrong end of the scale in education, in
employment, and in achievement.

“This points to clear
need for Te Puni Kokiri to have capacity within its own
staff to discharge its core functions. The work of the
contractors and consultants includes work as basic, as
central, as administration, report writing, and staff
cover. Work such as strategic leadership is clearly the
responsibility for the chief executive, not something that
can be purchased from consultants and contractors who have
no long-term involvement with Te Puni Kokiri ” said
Brendan Horan.

All too often the deliverables of these
people is loaded with jargon, and one suspects the work is
light on substance. Some examples of the jargon: whanau
navigators, commissioning agencies, culturally
anchored, whanau integration, whanau centered,
wraparound. You almost need a translator to turn that into
English or Maori.

Brendan Horan was commenting on figures
just released on spending at the public sector
agency.

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